'A GOOD LAUGH'

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I have been both surprised and shocked at the extent to which people in the Harvard community have been upset with Chris Durang's The Greatest Musical Ever Sung, and I write at this late date [Dec. 14] only because hostile letters have appeared so recently in the CRIMSON. As an Episcopal clergyman who does indeed "still take his eucharist seriously," I can only say that I found Durang's musical a sheer delight and not in the least offensive. To compare it, as one letter did (CRIMSON, 11/30), to "a musical satire of the life and death of Malcolm X or a rollicking revue of the atrocities at Auschwitz" is absurd. Both the death of Malcolm X and the atrocities at Auschwitz were tragic events, and to lampoon them would be to make a cruel joke out of human suffering. But the New Testament, at least for believing Christians, is not a "tragedy." Behind the crucifixion stands the resurrection. It is instead the revelation of the God of all creation, and I suspect that He is secure enough in His position to tolerate-even o enjoy-a good laugh.